1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and, in particular, to building the fuselage of an aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method, apparatus, and system for coordinating tools at both the interior and exterior of a fuselage assembly to perform assembly operations along the fuselage assembly.
2. Background
Building a fuselage may include assembling skin panels and a support structure for the fuselage. The skin panels and support structure may be joined together to form a fuselage assembly. For example, without limitation, the skin panels may have support members, such as frames and stringers, attached to the surface of the skin panels that will face the interior of the fuselage assembly. These support members may be used to form the support structure for the fuselage assembly. The skin panels may be positioned relative to each other and the support members may be tied together to form this support structure.
Fastening operations may then be performed to join the skin panels and the support members together to form the fuselage assembly. These fastening operations may include, for example, riveting operations, interference-fit bolting operations, other types of attachment operations, or some combination thereof. The fuselage assembly may need to be assembled in a manner that meets outer mold line (OML) requirements and inner mold line (IML) requirements for the fuselage assembly.
With some currently available methods for building a fuselage assembly, the fastening operations performed to assemble the skin panels and the support members together may be performed manually. For example, without limitation, a first human operator positioned at an exterior of the fuselage assembly and a second human operator positioned at an interior of the fuselage assembly may use handheld tools to perform these fastening operations. In some cases, this type of manual fastening process may be more labor-intensive, time-consuming, ergonomically challenging, or expensive than desired. Further, some current assembly methods used to build fuselages that involve manual fastening processes may not allow fuselages to be built in the desired assembly facilities or factories at desired assembly rates or desired assembly costs.
In some cases, the current assembly methods and systems used to build fuselages may require that these fuselages be built in facilities or factories specifically designated and permanently configured for building fuselages. These current assembly methods and systems may be unable to accommodate different types and shapes of fuselages. For example, without limitation, large and heavy equipment needed for building fuselages may be permanently affixed to a factory and configured for use solely with fuselages of a specific type.
Further, providing utilities, such as power, air, communications, hydraulic fluid, water, and other types of utilities, to the various systems used in some current assembly methods may be more difficult or cumbersome than desired. For example, without limitation, the various cables and connection devices needed to provide these types of utilities to the different tools being used to assemble a fuselage may impede or restrict the movement of personnel and tools within a manufacturing environment.
Additionally, some currently available assembly methods use tools that are associated with tracks that may be positioned over the surface of a fuselage. These tools may be positioned at various locations along the surface of the fuselage by being moved along these tracks. These types of tracks may limit the flexibility and freedom of movement of these tools relative to the fuselage and require more human interaction than desired. Further, these types of tracks may be unable to be used on certain areas of a fuselage. Consequently, a greater number of assembly operations than desired may need to be performed manually by one or more human operators. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.